Grey Room, Inc.

Mies's Event Space

Author(s): Detlef Mertins
Source: Grey Room, No. 20 (Summer, 2005), pp. 60-73
Published by: The MIT Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20442687
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

New National Gallery
Exhibition Pavilion, Berlin,
1962-68. Installation view
of inaugural exhibition,
Mondrian, 1968. Photo:
Horst Siegmann. Courtesy
Landesarchiv Berlin.

60

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Mies's

Event

Space

DETLEF MERTINS
When theNew National Gallery (NNG) inBerlin opened on September
15, 1968, thecriticscelebrated itas amonumentalwork by one of the
greatestarchitectsof thetwentieth
century,a homecomingfor
Mies van
derRohe who had leftforChicago in 1938 and was now eighty-two
yearsold, too frailtoattendtheevent.Yet voices ofdissent rosealmost
immediately:criticspointed tofunctionalproblems indisplayingart in
the great glass hall under the levitated grid, a space thatwas

colossal

in

most paintingsand sculpture;thatwas almostentirely

scale, dwarfing
open,withoutwalls for
mountingart;and that
was enclosed completely
inglass, lettinglightand views streaminunless thecurtains
were drawn.
Notwithstanding theseriousness of theconcerns, thecriticsexcused
thesefunctionaldifficultiesin recognitionof thearchitect'sown artistic
achievement.Afterall, thespiritof thecommissionhad been firstand
foremosttosecure a representativelatework byMies inBerlin and sec
ondarily toworryabout its function.
Many people still thinkthat
Mies
was indifferent
tohis client'sneeds, theneeds ofdisplayingart,impos
ing on them a work of art to be valued as an end in itself.Moreover, this
was a work first conceived
for a different purpose and a different cli

mate (theofficesofBacardi inSantiago,Cuba), alreadyonce transported

toGermanyand offeredunsuccessfullyfora gallery(theGeorg Schafer
Museum project inSchweinfurt),and now enlargedand transposedto
anothercityand anothercontext.For latercritics,theproblemsof func
were symptomaticof theproblems ofuniversalist ideology,
tionality
Mies's quest fora universal space overridingdifferenceforthesake of
sameness and control.
Yet, thestoryof thesedifficultiesis not thatsimple.Mies knew full
well what troubleshewas creatingforthecurators,not throughindif
ference but precisely because he cared about art and, especially,
it
would seem, about the future of art. "It is very difficult," he acknowl

edged, "to do an exhibition there.No question.But a greatpossibility

fornew ways to do it.And I think that Iwould not want tomiss that."'
For Mies, the task at hand in Berlin was not just to house the art of the
past, the great collection of easel paintings and figurative sculpture that
was accommodated
quite well, after all, in the permanent galleries and
sculpture garden on the lower level.2 Rather, he sought to support and
even provoke the emergence of new ways of displaying and experiencing
art, perhaps

even new ways ofmaking

55
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St
>Co

61

This was certainlynot thefirsttimethat

Mies sethis architecturein
theserviceofnewways of livingand, thereby,
set itagainst theperpet
uation of old habits and forms. In 1928 he spoke of building the
"unleashed

forces" of "our time" into a "new order, an order that permits

freeplay fortheunfoldingof life."3

The artistHans Richtercalled him a
new kind of architect,a Baumeister fora timeof transition,a catalyst
and agentofhistorical change.4Theo van Doesburg, too,singledMies
out as a leaderamong theyoungergenerationwhose workwas demon
strativeof thefuture,enablingobserverstoexperience itproleptically,
in advance of itsfullerrealization.5
The inaugural exhibition at theNNG-a retrospective of Piet
Mondrian-reveals somethingof thenew paradigm in theartsthat
Mies
believedwas unfolding.Recognizing thatthepaintingswere too small
tobe shown effectivelyin thebig glass hall,Mies designed a systemof
suspendedwall-size panels ontowhich thepaintingswere mounted.
The open configurationof thepanels createdmore intimatespaces for
viewing thepaintingswithout interrupting
thecontinuityof the larger
space.While criticsadmired theingenuityof thissolution,theynever
thelesspointed to theproblems inherentin displayingpainting in the
greathall and found itdisconcertingto see the legsofvisitorsmoving
beneath the panels. The idea of suspending panels may have been inspired

byexhibitionsinCullinanHall,whichMies had designedforthe

Museum
ofFine Arts inHouston in 1954-1958-exhibitions curated by James
JohnsonSweeneywith paintings floatinginmidair without architec
turalsupport.Mies himselfhad alreadyenvisioned somethinglike this
in a collage forthehypothetical
Museum fora Small City (1942-1943)
inwhich

a painting byWassily

Kandinsky

hovers above the ground next

to a sculpturebyAristideMaillol. Notwithstanding this image,how

ever,it is rare to findlevitatedplanes inMies's work.While Mies, like
Theo vanDoesburg, tooktheplane tobe a new fundamentalelementof
modern

architecture,

he preferred the freestanding wall

to the floating

plane, affirming
gravityand thegroundwhile embracingtheopen plan
and spatial continuum.
Themost directevidence for
Mies's ideas aboutnewways ofexhibit
ing art at the NNG

is found in a model

from 1964 showing

a possible

exhibitioninwhich twovery largewall-size paintings,abstractexpres

sionist innature, stand as freestanding
planes among thewood parti
tionsandmarble shaftsof thebuilding and, curiously,a tree.The image
recalls a seriesof collages,beginningwith theCourtHouse projectsof
the1930s, inwhich Mies graduallydeveloped a distinctiveidea about
combiningpainting, sculpture,architecture,and landscape. Some of
theethereal interiorperspectives include rectanglesofwood texture
pasted onto thesheet to representfreestanding
walls such as theebony

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wall of theTugendhatHouse with itsopticallychargedgrain.Other col

lages incorporatefragments
ofa paintingbyGeorgesBraque,FruitDish,
SheetMusic, and Pitcher(1926).By takingonlya fragment
of theBraque
paintingand invertingit,
Mies dissociated itfromtheactualwork and
transformed
what was representationalintoa pure abstractcomposi
tionof color,enlarged toarchitecturalscale and legibleat a distance.6
Thewell-knowncollage of theResorHouse of 1939 combinesawood
ofPaul Klee's paintingColorfulMeal (BunteMahlzeit;
wall, a fragment
1928), and a photograph of the landscape visible throughthe floor
to-ceilingpanoramicwindows-one instanceeach of an architectural
element (thewall), a painting,and a landscape,broughttogetherin an
assemblage.This marks a new kind ofunity through
montage, one that
respects,even heightens,the integrity
and autonomyof eachwork and
eachmedium, while bringingthemintoa structuraland proportional
relationshiptoone another.This isnot a Gesamtkunstwerk
(totalwork of
art) inwhich theoperativeprincipleis fusion,but ratheranEinheitskunst
(artofunity) inwhich a commonprinciple (innercause) isunderstood
tounderpin thedifferentformsof artisticpractice and theexpression
of theirinnerlogic.Moreover, thecollage foregroundstheelementary
characterandmaterial factureof each of itsparts.The abstractionthat
emerges at theelemental level begins to suggeststructural-that is,
organizational-affinities lurkingbeneath thesurfaceof appearance.
The threepieces of theResorHouse collage thussharean affinity
with
the flatteningand estrangingphotographyofAlbertRenger-Patzsch,
Umbo, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy,and otherswho, in the1920s,developed a
"new objectivity"inphotography,
exploitingthecapacityof thecamera
to revealaworld of secrettruthsand universal formsunavailable to the
naked eye.As vice presidentof theGermanWerkbund,Mies was well

Mertins

Office of Ludwig Mies

van der Rohe, Chicago.
New National Gallery
Exhibition Pavilion, Berlin,
model, 1964. Photo:
Hubert Henry. Courtesy
Chicago Historical Society
HB-27505-B.

Mies's

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EventSpace

63

Office of Ludwig Mies

van der Rohe, Chicago,
George Danforth and
William Priestley, delin
eators. Resor House
project collage with repro
duction of Paul Klee's
Colorful Meal (1939).
Courtesy The Mies van der
Rohe Archive, The Museum
ofModern Art,New York.
Gift of the Architect 716.63

awareof thenew objectivity

and thenew opticsfeaturedin the
Werkbund's
Film und Foto exhibitionof 1929, organized largelybyMoholy-Nagy
and commemoratedinpublicationsbyMies's friends
RichterandWerner
Graeffaswell as thehistorian/critic
FranzRoh.
If theabstractingeffectof theclose-up ismost evident at theResor
House in thefragment
ofKlee's Colorful
Meal, in thecollageof the
Museum
fora Small City (1943) theeffectismost evident in thephotographsof
the landscape-in thesurfaceofwater and thepatternof leaves.The
painting, in thiscase Picasso's Guernica (1937), is here shown in its
of thepainting
totality.
Despite thisreversal,theabstractedfiguration
is in scalewith thebuilding and inproportionwith thesculpturesby
Maillol and even theenlarged patternsofwater and leaves beyond.
Mies createdensemblesthatenhanced the
Throughcarefulrelationship
distinctnessand autonomyof each componentwhile simultaneously
bringingtheirunderlying
materialorganization(elemental,atomic) into
alignmentand visibility.
and sameness,
The combinationofautonomyand homology,
difference
isparadigmaticofMies's conceptionofBildung forpeople (formation,
and build
cultivation,and learning)andGestaltungforart,technology,
creationof formthroughelementalmeans, indi
ings(theself-generated
viduation throughinnercause).Mies understoodautonomynot as an
isolated autopoiesis but as a kind of self-fashioningthatis embedded
in and responsive tocontext.Individuationwas understood tooccur
within structures-social structures,
economic structures,
structuresof
ForMies,
mind and ofexistence-but also toactualize thesestructures.
thecapacity forBildung had been lostwith thegreatdetachmentof the
individual fromthecommunity thatbegan in theRenaissance and
with theadventofmass societyin the
assumed gargantuanproportions

-~~~ __,,!

46

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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latenineteenthand early twentiethcenturies.7

Renewing thiscapacity
became increasinglykey tohis conception of the taskat hand. If the
architectureof theNNG-especially itsgridded roof-is an essay in
making implicitstructureexplicit and tangible,italso provides a set
tingforothers toexplore thesame goal indifferent
artisticmedia.
Mies's collages of the1930s and 1940s belong to a historyof avant
garde critiquesof traditionalformsof artwhich underpinnednumer
ous experiments towarda new environmentalparadigm thatwould
reunite theartsand reuniteartwith life.The abstract,coloristic,and
immersiveenvironmentsenvisioned in the1920s byBruno Taut,Theo
vanDoesburg,Kurt Schwitters,El Lissitzky,and Le Corbusier are only
themost well-known of these experiments.The Barcelona Pavilion
(1928-1929) demonstratedMies's own versionwith a hybrid spatial
structure-partopen plan and partfreeplan. However,Mies rejected
theapplicationofcoloredpigmenttoarchitecturalsurfacesand instead
used color only as an integralpropertyof architecturalmaterials. He
walls (aswell as floorsand ceilings)not ofuniform
made freestanding
colorbut ofuniformmaterial: glass,wood, marble, and plaster.Where
El Lissitzky'sAbstractCabinets in
Dresden (1926)andHanover (1927
1928) attempted to absorb small
paintings and sculptural works
intotheoverallarchitecturalcom
position,his Pressa exhibition in
Cologne of 1928 created an entire
mileau outofphotographicimages,
many of themdramatically
enlarged
in scale. Similarly,Mies under
stood, as did others at that time,
that framedpaintings would be
superceded by wall-size works,
contributingtoa new unityof the
artswithin a new open and fluid
spatiality.
Having imaginedsuch a
possibilityin the1930s, itishardly
surprising thatMies responded
as enthusiastically as he did to
Picasso'sGuemicawhen itappeared
inChicago in 1939-1940-at last,
awall-size paintingthatdemanded
tobecome a freestanding
wall in
Mies's conceptionof themuseum.
Reviewingthemodel of theNNG

Top: New National Gallery

Exhibition Pavilion, Berlin:
Roberto Sebastian Antonio
Matta exhibition installa
tion, 1974. Photo: Reinhard
Friedrich.
Bottom: New National
Gallery Exhibition Pavilion,
Berlin: Francois Morellet
exhibition installation, 1977.
Photo: Reinhard Friedrich.

?447Jj.

*2??

9,

Mertins

IMies's

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Event Space

65

made in1964 and thecollagesthatpreceded ithelps torevivify

whatMies
might have understood theemergingparadigmofart tobe. However, it
would be hard toclaim thatthisnew unityofpainting,sculpture,archi
tecture,and landscapewas theonly formof display that
Mies antici
pated for the exhibition hall of theNNG. The space was, afterall,
intendedfortemporary
exhibitionswhose specificnaturecould notbe
predicted inadvance.And itextendedMies's explorationof theflexible
open plan-the "variablegroundplan" or "universalspace"-which he
had been developing since theearly 1940s andwhose primaryvirtue
was thecapacity to accommodate change.The openness of the long
span pavilion in steel and glass constitutesanotherway inwhich the

TI;
6

GryRom2

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NNG supportednewways ofdisplayingart,one thatcomes intofocus

when we look at thehistoryof exhibitionsand eventsheld thereover
thepast thirty
years.
withMies's
A diversityof responses to thebuilding,some consistent
vision, some brilliant inunexpectedways, and othersdecidedly awk
Mies's
ward, followedtheMondrian show.Although thecuratorsfound
suspended panels toocumbersomein theirsize andweight (substantial
equipmentwas requiredtomove themaround), theyused themforsev
eralmore shows, includingan exhibitionof largepaintingsbyRoberto
Sebastian AntonioMatta in 1970. In 1977 theexhibitionofworks by
FrangoisMorellet featuredlargepaintingshung directlyfromtheceil
ing,harkeningback toSweeney's shows atCullinan Hall. As an alter
native,however,an exhibitionsystemofdemountablewall panelswith
overhead structureand lightingtrackwas commissioned in 1977 from
WalterKuhn ofHannover inorder to facilitatevariable config
designer
urations ofmore intimatespaces forsmallerworks.Although it,too,
was awkward forthedisplay ofartand competedwith the largerarchi
tecturalframe,itwas used formore than seven years.Beginning in
thisperiod, butmore consistentlylateron, extensivewalls and even
roomswere constructeddirectlyon thefloor
within thegreathall. The
a.r.penck exhibitionof 1988,Art Spaces-Visiting theNational Gallery
(Kunstraume-Zu Gast inderNationalgalerie) of 1987, and architect
Frank0. Gehry'seffectiveinstallationforExiles and Emigresof1997 all
used thisstrategy.
In the1970s thespace began tobe used forinstallationartaswell as
multimedia installations.Panamarenko'sAeromodeller was shown
with smallerinventionsandwall-mountedworks in 1978,and
together

Mertins

Opposite, top: New National

Gallery Exhibition Pavilion,
Berlin: New Painting in
Germany exhibition instal
lation, 1983, using display
system designed byWalter
Kuhn. Photo: Reinhard

Friedrich.

Opposite, bottom:
New National Gallery
Exhibition Pavilion, Berlin:
a.r. penck exhibition
installation, 1988.
Photo: Reinhard Friedrich.
Below: New National Gallery
Exhibition Pavilion, Berlin:
Panamarenko exhibition
installation, 1978.
Photo: Reinhard Friedrich.

jMies's

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67

Mario Merz's Drop ofWater (1987) was featured in the show Positions
in Contemporary Art (1988). The Douglas Gordon show in 1998, featur

ing5 Year Drive-By and Bootleg (Empire),continued thisgenre and

appeared to fulfillMies's desire for large-scale works-albeit

now in the
medium of video. For his show in 2000, the architect Renzo Piano cre
ated a richly layered installation of suspended horizontal vitrines punc
tuated with floating prototypes of roof elements and structural joints.
By revisiting the idea of suspension from theMondrian
show but with
out subdividing
the great hall into smaller spaces, Piano achieved a

heightenedsense of lightness,transparency,
and theatricality.
The

space

has also been

used

for performances,

68GeyRom2

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including

the

Metamusik Festival in 1974 and thecircus thatwas part of theexhibi

tionCircus in 1978.The installationofAlbertoGiacometti'sattenuated
existentialfiguresin 1988 also had somethingof thequalityofa perfor
mance when seen in silhouetteor in relationtovisitorsmoving through
thegallery.
More recently,in severalsolo exhibitionsof site-specific
work, artists
have activelyengaged thearchitectureindialogue. This typeofwork
would not have been anticipatedbyMies, althoughhis building lends
itselfespeciallywell to thosewho enterinto its logicor respond-be it
or critically-to his desire tomanifest thedeep structure
affirmatively
immanenttocreation.
While thescale and proportionofMattMullican's
Banners (1995) clearly show thework belongs to thebuilding-the
graphic languageof theformerechoes theuniversalistambitionsof the
latter-it is at thesame timeentirelyalien to thebuilding,blocking its
with sheetsofbold, colorfulicons thatradicallytransform
transparency
the image of thebuilding outside and render the experience inside
almost claustrophobic.More subtly,
Ulrich Ruckriem's installationof
1999-2000 placed stones thatwere exactlythesize of thebuildingmod
ule on thefloorin a patterngeneratedthrougha locationalformulathat
was both randomand rigorous,therebystretchingthe logicof thegrid
Where Ruckriemtookover thefloor,
beyond thelimitofpure rationality.
Holzer tookover theceilingwith SMPK in 2001. By attaching
Jenny
linesofmoving electronictextto theunderside ofMies's darkartificial
Holzer transformed
theimpliedextensionof thegrid to thehorizon
sky,
on all sides intoa one-way flowof information.
Like soldiersmarching
in formation,
rowupon rowofprovocativeyetenigmaticslogans rush
by overhead,at timesso quickly orwith the lightsoscillating thattheir
messages

can be read only a few words

at a time and

abstract,a wave flowingthroughand beyond thegrid.

thus become

Opposite, top: New

National Gallery Exhibition
Pavilion, Berlin: Douglas
Gordon exhibition installa
tion, 1999. Photo: Stefan
Muller. Courtesy Deutscher
Akademischer
Austauschdienst, Berlin.
Opposite, bottom: New
National Gallery Exhibition
Pavilion, Berlin: Metamusic
Festival installation, 1974.
Photo: Reinhard Friedrich.
Below: New National Gallery
Exhibition Pavilion, Berlin:
Ulrich Ruckriem exhibition
installation, 1999-2000.
Courtesy New National
Gallery.

Mertins

Mies's

Event Space

69

Mertins

Mies's

Event Space

69

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Most recently,in 2003 theexhibitionContentbyRem Koolhaas and

OMA tookaim at thepristinepurityof theglass box and filled itup
most recentbuildings
material fromdesigningtheir
with thescattered
materials and
and urban projects-models andmaquettes in different
material
scales, graphic presentationsof researchdata and imagery,
studies,engineeringcalculations,and even themedia spectacleofglobal
or eventsrequired
politics. IfinMies's timetheproductionofdifference
emptiness,today,Koolhaas implies,itrequiresthefullnessof content,
and politics asmuch
theentropyof junk,and theflowsof information
asmatter.
The varietyof showsand eventsheld at theNNG, beginningwith the

70

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raisingof theroofand thecelebration(Richtfest)thatfollowed,points

foran experimental
to its functionas a frameworkor infrastructure
approach toartand lifeinwhich thequestionofautonomyextendsto the
curatorsand artiststhemselves.It is somethinglikea black-box theater,
and desires,
functions
a flexibletoolcapable ofbeingadapted todifferent
not unlike Cedric Price's Fun Palace project (1961-1964)-a giant
ErectorSet inwhich Britishworkerswere torealize their"potentialfor
by dancing,beatingdrums,Method-acting,tuninginon
self-expression
Thus the
Hong Kong in closed-circuittelevisionand action painting."8
with Coop Himme(l)blau's Large Cloud
NNG also shows an affinity
structureinVienna, fourframework
towers
Scene (1976)-a temporary
thirteen
metershighwith heaven stretchedbetween them,an open set
tingforevents,mobile performances,circuses,and streetfests,hoping
to increasethevitalityofurban lifeinordertoprecipitateurbanchange.
As with Price,Mies's stagehas no set script,nor is therea teleologyto
be performed.Instead itsextremeopenness anticipatesdramaticevents.
Mies captured thisspiritin a sketchthatdiagrams lifein theuniversal
space, theopen yet lightlystructuredspacewithinwhich partitions,
with
furniture,
and installationscan be configuredand reconfigured
ease.With a fewstrokesofhis pencil,Mies marked theedges ofa square
boxwithin which a squiggly line circles around theemptycenter,an
The swirling
eventwhose formand characterremain indeterminate.
fluxhas yet to settleor harden into formsor striations,is still in the
more thana potential.
processofbecoming,is smooth,evenchaotic,little
Mies's squigglylinedepicts thepotentialityofbecoming, thepotential
to actualize being in amultiplicity of contingentconcreteconfigura
tionsover time.This is thespiritofMies's quest forthe"almostnothing"
millennia, has been understood as the
thattakesus back towhat, for
ofexistence.LikeKasimirMalevich's
and potentiality
originalnothingness
Black Square (1915), it is all and nothing. Ifpeople are disturbedand
unsettledby itsascetic emptiness,thatis precisely itspoint: tocreate
within theworld-the world thatis already fixedin form-a clearing,
a radicalnegation,an open space thatdemands and facilitatesthepro
ductionofbeing,as close topure presence as possible.Mies's glass box

Mertins

Opposite, top:
New National Gallery
Exhibition Pavilion, Berlin:
JennyHolzer, SMPK exhibi
tion installation, 2001.
Courtesy New National
Gallery.
Opposite, bottom:
New National Gallery
Exhibition Pavilion, Berlin:
Rem Koolhaas and OMA,
Content exhibition installa
tion, 2003. Courtesy OMA.
Below: Cedric Price,
Fun Palace forJoan
Littlewood, Stratford East,
London, Project, 1959-61.
Perspective graphite on
diazotype. Courtesy The
Museum ofModern Art,
New York.

IMies's

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71

is sominimal, its infrastructure

sowell integrated,
and itselementsso
more thana recessive,neutral,and
reducedand simplifiedthatit is little
emptyarchitectonicinwhich toplay at amodernitywhose realization
is continuallydeferred.
However, thepalpable discomfortofmany of theinstallationsin the
NNG suggeststhatitsarchitectureis not, afterall, thesame as Price's
more accommodatingErectorSet or, forthatmatter,theneutralwhite
box thathas become paradigmaticof galleries forcontemporaryart.
While open tochangeand newways ofdoing things,it isnotneutralafter
all. InMies's phrase, it is "almostnothing,"and ifwe put theemphasis
on thealmost ratherthan thenothing,thenwe realize thatit is some
thingin fact,something
material and tangiblethatoperatesbetweenus
and nothing,thatpoints tonothing,plays theroleofnothing,allows us
to imaginenothingand even experience its terror,
keeping thechill of
nothingatbaywhile harnessingitscatalyticagency.The NNG is, in fact,
a resolutelyfixedand unchangingframethatis chargedwith symbolic,
evenmetaphysical, implications,likethedome ofa cathedral.And like
a cathedral,thepurposeof itsanalogyto theheavens is to takeus outside
ourselves,beyond thehuman-to contemplateand experiencealterity
without appropriatingit.At theNNG thisextensionoccurs in thefloor
as well

as the roof, as the building

opens

to and frames the plaza,

the

city,and thehorizon beyond.Mies did not offertechnologyas tool,

empirical, functional,and transparent.Instead he transformedtech
was at once technological,artis
nology intoan architectonicimagethat
tic,historical,and cosmological.This imageprovides a stage-almost
transparent-onwhich thehomelessnessand nihilism so centralto the
experience

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

(lower left)attending the
"Richtsfest" (Topping Out
Ceremony) at the New
National Gallery, Berlin,
December 4,1957. Photo:
Ludwig Ehlers. Courtesy
Landesarchiv Berlin.

72

ofmodernity

can be enacted as both a crisis and an opportu

On thisstagesome performances
nityforconstructiveself-fashioning.
succeedbetterthanothers,and some failmiserablyand are seen todo so.
Themore theexhibitionspush beyond theconventionsof traditionalart
and themore theyengage thescale of thebuildingand theproblematics
ofmodernity,

themore

successful

they are. Nor is theNNG

the same as

event structure.
Mies's dark artificial
Coop Himmelb(l)au's temporary
sky isnot onlydurablebut enduring,heavy inboth the literaland figu
rativesense o1 theword,
less optimisticand light
hearted,more demanding
but also galvanizing in its
evocationof thestructure
of existence.

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Notes
textwas originally commissioned
Initiative (PEI), as
Exhibitions
by The Philadelphia
a
its
Practice:
Great
of
What
Makes
Exhibition?
part
forthcoming publication, Questions
of
PEI is a program of The Pew Charitable
Trusts and is administered
The
of
University
by
like to thank Andres Lepik for his generous
the Arts, Philadelphia.
The author would

This

support during several research visits to Berlin

access and
to the NNG
for providing
guidance
1. See
Mies

interview with

(New York: Michael

2. The

formation

of the Nationalgalerie
Century Collection
1861

and became

Ludwig Mies
Blackwood

and the staff of the Neue

Nationalgalerie

archives.

van der Rohe

Productions,

in the film by Michael

Blackwood,

1987).

of the Neue

Berlin brought together the collections

Nationalgalerie
of the Stiftung Preussischer
Kulturbesitz
and the Twentieth
had been established
in
of the City of Berlin. The Nationalgalerie
one of the greatest collections
art. In 1937 the Nazis
of post-1800
500 works. More perished
War II; others were
World
during
and returned only much
later.

or sold nearly
destroyed
taken to the Soviet Union
3.Mies

van der Rohe,

The Artless
1991):

Word:

Mies

"The Preconditions

of Architectural

van der Rohe

the Building

and

Work,"

Art

in Fritz Neumeyer,
MIT Press,

(Cambridge:

301.

4 (January/February
"Der neue Baumeister,"
1925): 3-9.
Qualit?t
van Doesburg,
trans.
"The Dwelling';
The Famous Werkbund
Exhibition,"
I. Loeb and Arthur L. Leob, On European
Charlotte
Architecture.
Complete Essays from
Het Bouwbedrijf,
1924-1931
(Basel, Berlin, Boston: Birkh?user,
1990), 164. The original
4. Hans

Richter,

5. Theo

inHet Bouwbedrijf,
vol. 4, no. 24 (November
1927): 556-559.
essay was published
6.1 am indebted to Kenneth Hayes forhis analysis of these collages and more generally
for his
artistic

insights into the shift from easel

environments.

7. Ludwig
Neumeyer,
Pr?s?,

Mies

van der Rohe,

The Artless Word: Mies

1991),

to wall-sized

painting

"The Preconditions
van der Rohe

and

works

of Architectural
the Building

Art

and

immersive

Work,"

in Fritz

(Cambridge:

MIT

301.

8. Ruth Langdon
Inglis, "Architecture:
February 1966): 69-72.

The Fun Palace,"

Art in America

54 (January/

Mertins

I Miess

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